The Election Is Over ... Now What?

I am writing this with a distinct disadvantage. My deadline for publication is Monday night so I have no idea how the mid-term elections turned out. My best guess is Republicans won a great victory in the House and picked up enough seats in the Senate to make it close to impossible for President Obama’s agenda to continue. It is possible the GOP is still celebrating a historic win where the conservative wave swept them to power in both chambers and gave them a string of stunning victories in the governor’s races.

Whatever the outcome once the celebrations or commiserations cease everyone will need to take a deep breath and realize we are facing the same problems today we were facing before the election. We are a country teetering on the brink of a fiscal meltdown. We have a runaway debt that threatens to bury us. Government is out of control in its spending habits and it is out of control when it comes to the curtailment of our liberties. Most of our government leaders are corrupt, power hungry neophytes who have never met an earmark or a pork program they couldn’t love. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents all have egg on their faces and both hands deep in the cookie jar.

Unless you consider apologizing and appeasement valid foreign policy positions we have no foreign policy. Our position as leader of the free world has been traded for a position as laughingstock of the free world. Morally, we are so bankrupt we can’t see that our values have eroded to the point we exalt the things God’s Word condemns and condemn what God’s Word exalts. Constitutionally, we have abandoned the principles of our Republic and substituted a mix of Marxism and European socialism. Spiritually, we have abandoned God, exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and are receiving our just reward.

So….what do we do now? First, we have to acknowledge have far we have fallen. We can’t climb out of a hole until we are ready to stop digging and look up for the light. While it is true that we are the source of the pain we have been feeling, hanging our heads will raise neither our spirits nor our standards. Let’s admit we are responsible for this mess and start working together to clean it up. We need to freeze all government spending…right now…today. We should refuse to spend another penny of the stimulus money. We should make the Bush tax cuts permanent across the board. And we should immediately announce real cuts in entitlement programs and all other forms of government spending.

The budget process begins in the House. We should make significant reductions that will cut into the deficit and start us on the road to a balanced budget. If the Democrats threaten to shut down the government, Republicans should call their bluff. The Republican revolution of 1994 died at the end of 1995 when Republicans blinked over the government shutdown. Conservatives must be ready to make hard fiscal decisions that require sacrifice on the part of all Americans. It is the only way we will ever get our financial house in order. We can’t continue to spend as if there is still money in the bank.

It is very unlikely Congress will be able to override a presidential veto that is sure to be used against a direct repeal of Obamacare. Republicans should pull the plug on all spending related to the bill and use whatever legislative clout they have to stop any further implementation of the bill. Entitlement programs have to nipped in the bud or they become as addictive as any drug. The healthcare bill is a huge boondoggle but the truth is if it were the best piece of legislation ever passed it would still be just another entitlement program that we can’t afford. Healthcare reform should start with portability of policies, competition across state lines, and tort reform. Those three measures would fire up free market solutions by increasing competition and driving down healthcare costs.

Next, we need a coherent energy plan that focuses on clean coal, drilling, and a repeal of draconian government regulations that hamper the building of nuclear power plants and oil refineries. Day one should see a repeal of the deep water-drilling ban in the Gulf. If we want clean, affordable energy we need to forever bury cap and trade and offer tax incentives to businesses that are working to develop viable alternatives to oil and gas. Our shift to cleaner, cheaper energy sources will not come through government coercion. It must be fueled (pun intended) by free market solutions that rev up the engine of investment rewarding the good ideas while emptying the tank of the bad ideas.

Finally, we have to get serious about border security and a sensible, workable policy toward illegal aliens. We should begin by enforcing the laws on the books while working toward an immigration policy that will lead to the immediate deportation of all illegal aliens with a criminal record. The rest should be fined for breaking our immigration laws, required to pay all back taxes, learn the English language, and then get in the back of the legal immigration line.

Elections come and they go. The pendulum swings from left to right. We must not let this historic election be nothing more than a mere change of power in Washington. It has be to be a genuine reformation with a return to the biblical and constitutional principles that will rescue our republic and restore our role as the leader of the free world.

Dr. Tony Beam is Vice-President for Student Services and Director of the Christian Worldview Center at North Greenville University in Tigerville, South Carolina.